I.C.E. News Release

December 19, 2008

84 aliens arrested by ICE Fugitive Operations Teams in the Dallas area

DALLAS - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Friday that its officers arrested 84 fugitive aliens and other immigration violators here and in surrounding communities as part
of a five-day operation that ended Thursday.

"Fugitive aliens" are illegal aliens who fail to appear for their immigration hearings, or who abscond after having been ordered to leave the country by a federal immigration judge.

Three local fugitive operations teams began the operation Dec. 14, and made the targeted arrests in the following 18 Metroplex cities: Argyle, Arlington, Balch Springs, The Colony, Carrollton, Dallas, Denton, Duncanville, Farmers Branch, Fort Worth, Garland, Haltom City, Irving, Kennedale, Mesquite, Plano, Richardson and Rowlett. Those arrested are from the following countries: Costa Rica, Mexico, Nepal and Nicaragua.

"This operation removed 40 criminal aliens from our communities," said Nuria T. Prendes, field office director of the ICE Office of Detention and Removal Operations in Dallas, Texas. "Our Fugitive Operations Teams work to protect public safety, and maintain the integrity of the immigration system." Prendes oversees 128 counties in north Texas and the State of Oklahoma.

Sixty four of those arrested had final orders of deportation; the remaining 20 were immigration violators encountered during the course of the targeted operation.

The three ICE Fugitive Operations Teams in the Dallas area of responsibility in fiscal year 2008 made more than 1,600 arrests. Of this total, more than 1,300 were fugitive aliens who had failed to comply with their outstanding deportation orders; 317 â€â€